


For the Love of Art

by ActingItUp



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Pining, davey's in love with a voice, im really bad at tags im so sorry, kind of, performer au, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-11-30 12:40:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11463807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActingItUp/pseuds/ActingItUp
Summary: David falls in love with the beautiful voice from upstairs, when suddenly he's face to face with the person behind it.





	1. Chapter 1

David Jacobs had never met the family that lived above him. He knew the woman who lived there had foster children, but he’d never actually met them. But there was one boy who he could pick out just by his voice. He was the reason David kept his window open during the evening, even if it let in the annoying sounds of the city and the stench of the alley below. David opened his window every night just to try to hear the boy from upstairs sing.

The first time he’d heard the boy was during a hot summer evening. David had been laying in bed wishing he could catch a breeze from his open window. Instead, what he heard drifting into his room was music. Specifically someone singing. Something about… Santa Fe?

David was mesmerized by the voice. It sounded close. He hurried to his window to try to find the source. There was a boy, no older than David, standing on the fire escape above him. David’s breath caught in his throat. He quickly backed away from the window, afraid that he’d been seen, afraid that the boy with the beautiful voice would stop singing. He’d never heard a voice so enchanting, so captivating, so alluring. David could listen to him sing forever.

Almost every night after that, David kept his window open in the hopes of hearing him sing again. And almost every night, he was rewarded. Some nights it was pop songs, some nights famous Broadway numbers, some nights original songs David had never heard. One of David’s favorites was a duet that the boy always had to sing both parts to. Even so, it was a beautiful song and David admired him even more for it. Except for the first time he’d heard him, David hadn’t dared to try to get a look at the boy. All David knew was that he was tall, had brown hair, and had that incredible voice.

It had been weeks. David assumed by this point that the boy must be preparing auditions for colleges and Broadway shows, especially since he seemed to cycle through the same songs over and over. Not that it mattered to David. The boy could sing the phone book and make it sound beautiful. He just wished he could catch a name.

Sometimes David could hear bits of conversation if he listened closely enough over the sound of traffic. There was another boy called “Crutchie” who often made an appearance. Both boys had the thick accents that came with growing up in the city. Most of the time, Crutchie would come to call the boy in for dinner or to help Medda (who David assumed was the foster mom) with some chore. The boy never said much and David was beginning to think he’d never know who he was unless he plucked up the courage to introduce himself.

But what would he even say?  _Hi, I’m the boy who lives underneath you who has been listening to you sing nearly every night._  That just made David sound like some kind of creep. Though, who could blame him? That voice would make angels jealous.

So David sat in his room, content to just listen to him sing. He pretended this boy was a personal angel of David’s, cheering him up when he felt down, helping him drift off to sleep on the nights David turned in early. He knew he was being absurd, but this little bit of pretend was all David looked forward to during the hot summer days when his parents quietly argued about money and his sister wasted away working in a factory to help make ends meet, while David felt guilty for taking on his non-paying internship. And it’s not like this boy would ever have to know that David did this. David wouldn’t dare utter a word about this to anyone. It was private. It was his time to just pretend that this random person he’d never met was putting on these private concerts just for him. And he was content to keep it that way.

July rolled around and David had his nose in one of his books. It was an anthology of Shakespeare’s plays and he was midway through Romeo and Juliet when he found himself quietly singing the duet he’d been so fond of. He knew the words by now after hearing it so many times and maybe it was the story or maybe the fact that David was in love with a voice that it had popped into his head. It  _did_  seem oddly fitting for the Shakespearean tragedy.

David spared a glance at his open window, but he knew that the boy wouldn’t make his usual appearance until later when it had cooled. So he kept singing. It  _was_ a beautiful song and David did occasionally like to sing himself. He idly wondered what it would sound like with accompaniment. David drifted away from the words on the page, soon finding himself staring out of his window from where he sat at his desk, singing the first verse and daydreaming about the talented boy from upstairs.

_“Till the moment I found you, I thought I knew what love was.”_

Maybe David could just go knock on the door and introduce himself. They were practically neighbors, so it wouldn’t be too weird.

_“The world finds ways to sting you, and then one day, decides to bring you something to believe in…”_

David could go up the fire escape and knock on the window. It was probably the boy’s room and he’d have a good chance of catching him so he could introduce himself.

_“And if you’re gone tomorrow, what was ours still will be.”_

What if the boy was some jerk? What if David had just made him out to be some kind of angel when he was really just the exact opposite?

_“I have something to believe in, now that I know you believe in me–”_

_Clang._

David gasped in shock, jumping up from his desk and stumbling back towards his bedroom door. A boy had jumped down on the landing of the fire escape outside of his window and was staring at him. He looked confused and… awed?

“That’s my song,” the boy said, sounding excited.

“ _What?_ ” David was still processing what had happened. Who was this boy? Why was he on the fire escape outside of David’s window? And why was he staring at him like–

“That was _my_  song you were singing.” The boy cleared his throat and quickly sang the beginning of the next verse of the song. “ _We was never meant to meet, but then we meet. Who knows why? One more stranger on the street, just someone sweet passing by._  That’s  _my_  song!”

The blush on David’s cheek had darkened as the boy sang and was now staring a bit accusingly at him.

Oh no.

_Oh no._

This wasn’t happening. Not like this.

“Oh my God. It’s  _you_ ,” David whispered, mostly to himself. He covered his mouth with his hand, afraid he might saying anything else embarrassing. The boy outside his window was smiling a dazzling smile, making David almost swoon.

“It’s Jack, actually.” He looked between the open window and David. “Look, can I, uh, come in and talk?”

“Oh! Of course, I’m sorry!” David moved closer to the window, prepared to offer Jack a hand, but he expertly climbed through.

The pair stared at each other for a moment, seeming unsure of what to say. David was drinking in the sight. He’d been dreaming of meeting the person behind the voice for months now. And here he finally was. Not as tall as David had originally thought, but twice as handsome. After getting a better look at his face, David was sure Jack had to be a bit older than him by the way the scruff on his neck and jaw seemed to be an ever present problem while it was barely there for David. The messy hair and newsie cap seemed to complete the look of messy paint splattered clothes and well worn shoes.

“I’m Jack Kelly,” Jack said, finally interrupting the silence and sticking out an equally paint covered hand. Was there anything this boy  _couldn’t_ do?

“David Jacobs,” he replied, sounded less than confident as he took Jack’s hand and tried not to relish in the touch too much.

“Nice to meet you, Davey.” The smile on Jack’s face was making David’s own face ache. He’d never seen someone so excited. “So… you’ve heard me singing?”

“Well… uh, yeah. I guess you could say that.”  _Play it cool, David._  He begged himself not to say something that he’d regret.

“Have I been bothering you with it or something? Because I never meant to do that, it’s just hard to practice in the apartment when Medda also has rehearsing to do,” Jack said, his smile slowly turning to a frown as he spoke. David wanted nothing more than for that smile to be back in place.

“No! No, I love listening to you.”  _Really?_  “You’re voice is like nothing I’ve ever heard.”  _Are you kidding me!?_

David was mentally cursing himself to hell, but kept his feeble smile. Jack’s own smile slowly returned, though he looked a bit more self conscious now.

“I’m really not all that good… I’ve just been practicing some songs to perform at Medda’s theater. She’s my mom, by the way. Well, foster mom.” Jack shrugged, his hands shoved into his pants pockets. “She owns a cabaret and has been begging me to go perform for months.”

“You’re really good,” David insisted earnestly. “And the original songs especially– You wrote them?” Now that he’d started talking, David was eager to know everything.

Jack scratched the back of his head shyly. “Yeah, they’re mine. Medda helped write the melodies, but the words… They’s mine.”

“They’re beautiful.”

David watched Jack’s cheeks become tinted with pink as his own cheeks flushed red again.

“Is that why you were singing it? My song I mean?” That smile Jack first wore was back on his face, though the blush still remained.

He was  _impossibly_  attractive.

David stared down at the floor, not quite knowing how to say he was thinking about being in love when he was singing it. “I, um… Well, I–”

“Will you sing it with me?”

David froze. “What?” He slowly looked up at Jack. He looked like he was going to start bouncing off the walls at any second.

“At my show, I mean. At the cabaret. I’ve been looking for someone to sing with and–”

“No way!” David put his hands up and took a step back. He did  _not_  sing in front of people. He barely liked  _talking_  in front of people!

David immediately regretted his actions as the smile once again slipped from Jack’s face.

“Why not? You’ve got real talent, Davey.”

 _Davey_. He could get used to that.

David scoffed and looked anywhere but at Jack. He was not going to let this random boy burst into his home and convince to do a performance with him– and who _knew_  what that entailed.

“Davey, you’ve been listening to me sing for weeks– probably months actually. And in all that time I haven’t found the right person to sing with yet, but you…” Jack took a step closer to David, making David’s heart skip a beat. “You underestimate yourself. The way you sang it was…” Jack trailed off again, seeming to look around the room for the right words. He decided to settle on a simple, “It was perfect.”

David stared at Jack in shock.  _He_  was getting compliments on  _his_  voice? From  _Jack?_  The boy he’d been pining over just based on his singing alone? Was he dreaming?

“Davey,” Jack started again, sounding a bit more serious. “David Jacobs. I’ve heard your name before.” Jack turned away to begin pacing as he thought.

“Probably from my mom yelling my name at dinner time,” David grumbled.

“No… No, it’s- Ah ha!” Jack clapped his hands together triumphantly. “I’ve seen your news articles! In the papers!”

David blanched. Jack had read his articles? He’d been interning at The Sun for two years now, but he’d only had a few of his stories published and they were definitely nowhere near the front page. “You’ve read my articles?”

“Sure as hell have! There was the one published last month… Something about NASA. I remember because you don’t write like most reporters.” Jack was grinning at him again, though he was now across the room. “You write with feeling. You’ve got a way with words, Jacobs.”

David was speechless. He would have laughed at the irony if only he could have remembered how to breathe. Jack really had read his work. “I-It’s not really a big deal, it… it was just a small–”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Dave. If you got  _me_  reading your stuff, you’ve got talent.” Jack was gazing around the room again and suddenly David felt naked. He felt too open, too exposed to this person he’d admired for far too long. “Don’t you keep ‘em?”

David watched him carefully, sitting back down in his desk chair, feeling like he might be on fire. “Keep what?”

“The articles. Don’t you cut them out of the newspaper and hang them up somewhere?” Jack made a show of looking for where the articles might be hidden. David laughed.

“Of course I keep them. They’re in a scrapbook.” David shrugged and picked up his book from where it had fallen. He suddenly remembered how just minutes ago he’d been staring out his window and dreaming of the boy who now stood in his room.

“Well, maybe you can come write a review of my show, if you have the time.” Jack had moved closer to him again, and David’s breath caught in his throat.

“I, uh, yeah. Yeah, that’d be–”

“Unless you change your mind about singing with me, that is.” A cockier smile was in the place of the shining one Jack had greeted him with. “Kind of hard to write a review of yourself and get it published.”

“Jack, I’m not a singer!”

Jack laughed. Even the sound of his  _laughter_  made David’s heart swell. “Everyone can be a singer, Davey. And you most definitely  _are_.” Jack just smiled at him for a moment, until his face softened. “It would be a real honor to sing that song with you, Davey.”

With that, Jack was ducking back through the window, leaving David dumbstruck.  _An honor?_

“Just let me know, Davey! The show is in a month!” Jack called as he climbed back up the fire escape and to his own apartment.

David sat in silence for a moment, not quite sure the whole interaction had been real. But if it had been, was he really going to pass up the opportunity to sing with Jack?

David felt like screaming and singing and dancing and flying far, far away. His stomach was still flipping as if Jack was still in the room and his heartbeat hadn’t slowed for a second. Sing with Jack. Sing alongside the most beautiful voice he’d ever heard. Even if he embarrassed himself, how could he say no that?

He turned to his book again, though he knew he was too riled up to hope to concentrate on reading. He smiled, giddy, at the words on the page. Words filled with love and promises. Words that held the same poetic feeling Jack gave him when he sang. David closed his eyes and sighed.

What was he going to tell his parents?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized that this has weird phantom of the opera vibes for no reason and im sorry for that lmfao. i promise its not a weird phantom of the opera thing. i promise. please trust me.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was shining through David’s open window the next morning, soft singing drifting through with it. David rolled over in bed, still half asleep with a smile on his face. He’d been having a wonderful dream about singing at a nightclub with the boy… With Jack.

Suddenly, the singing stopped just as David was about to drift back off to sleep.

“Mornin’, Dave!”

Jack’s cheery voice startled David into a sitting position, making him gasp.

“Oh, shit, sorry. Were you still sleeping?” As David tried to slow his heartbeat after being scared half to death, he stared at Jack as he checked the watch on his wrist. For some reason, it surprised him that Jack even owned a watch. “It’s almost noon, Davey. You don’t seem like the type to sleep the day away.”

“I… I was–”

“Can I come in? Are you decent under those covers?” Jack’s mouth quirked up into a flirty smile as he climbed in through the open window. David immediately tightened his grip on his blanket and shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t have a shirt on and wore only boxers. It was summer and it was hot and David didn’t expect strange men to come in through his window.

Then again, he did live in New York.

“I’m… I have boxers on, if that’s what you’re asking,” David mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Ah, so you’re not a briefs guy, huh?” Jack was still smirking at him as he stood leaning against David’s desk.

This was the last conversation David wanted to have after just waking up. He managed to compose himself enough to ask, “What are you even doing here, Jack?”

Jack shrugged. “Wanted to know if you decided to sing with me.”

“It hasn’t even been a full day since I  _met_ you, let alone enough time to figure out if I want to sing at your mother’s cabaret!” David groaned and flopped onto his back again, shutting his eyes. He’d been kept awake all night while his anxiety got the best of him. He  _wanted_  to sing with Jack. More than anything. But could he actually go through with it?

“Davey, you’ve been listening to me sing long enough to know my set list, so I don’t think that’s really an excuse,” Jack chuckled. David shot him a glare, which Jack didn’t see. He was too busy looking around David’s room again. “You sure got a lot of books.”

“Yeah, I like to read,” David replied tersely and settled himself again, closing his eyes and choosing to ignore Jack as much as possible. He just wanted to go back to dreaming about the situation rather than living it.

“What’s your favorite book?”

David reluctantly looked to Jack again. He couldn’t help it. Jack had sounded… more than sincere. No one had ever actually cared to know about David’s reading habit and it made him suspicious. Was Jack just going to make fun of him?

“Why do you want to know?” David snapped.

Jack held up his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, if it’s a touchy subject or something, I won’t ask about it again. Just trying to get to know you is all.”

David assessed the situation. Jack seemed genuine enough. It didn’t seem like some sort of trap in order to make fun of him. After a moment, David sighed. “I’m a really big fan of Shakespeare.” He saw Jack’s eyes flick down to the anthology that still sat on his desk. “I know that sounds pretty pretentious, but I do actually like the stories and I always liked studying them in school and one time I actually considered auditioning for my school’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream but I’m not really an actor so I didn’t go for it even though I would have been a great Lysander. Though I’m not really sure how I would have found time for it between all the school work and my internship and–” David froze when he noticed Jack staring at him. He had an odd expression on his face and David felt like he was under a microscope.

“Midsummer is the one with the fairies, right?” Jack cocked his head to the side and crossed his arms over his chest. “Wasn’t there some production where they made Helena a guy?”

David sat up again, staring at Jack. “You know Shakespeare?”

“Don’t  _everyone_  know Shakespeare?” Jack grinned.

“No, I mean you  _know_  Shakespeare?” He clarified. He’d never been able to have a real, not-school-related conversation about Shakespeare with anyone before. This boy was turning out to be somehow  _too_  perfect. David started to wonder when the other shoe would drop.

Jack shrugged. “Anyway, you’d make a good Helena– er, Helenus?– instead of Lysander.” Jack was looking David over with that strange look still on his face. David’s cheeks felt hot.

“Why, do I just give off a ‘desperate’ vibe to you or something?” David scoffed, though he felt like Jack was trying to say something completely different. He just didn’t know what.

Jack just smiled at him. “Nah, you just… seem like the hopeless romantic type.”

“You’re the one writing love songs with no one to sing them with.”

They stared at each other for a brief moment, sizing each other up. David didn’t like feeling judged by this– albeit gorgeous– stranger in his own home. Especially when he wasn’t wearing proper clothes.

David self consciously got out of bed and hurried to his dresser, pulling out a plain tee and pajama pants. Jack cleared his throat and turned his head, giving David some privacy.

“I, uh, do actually have a girlfriend, you know.”

David stopped just as he was about to pull on the pajama pants. His heart sank to his stomach and he had no good explanation as to why.

_So Perfect Boy did have a flaw._

David turned to look at Jack, willing himself not to look disappointed. He didn’t even care that he was still only in his boxers. He had to know.

“Why are you asking me to sing with you then?”

Jack was looking at him again, but David held himself against the intense gaze. “Ain’t I allowed to choose who I do and do not perform with?”

“I-I just meant… why  _me?_ ” _You have a girlfriend, why are you so eager to sing a love song with me? A guy?_

But Jack only smiled. “I’m still waiting on your answer, by the way.” He pushed himself off the desk and took a few steps closer to David, just as he had done the previous day. “There’s a lot of rehearsing to do and not much time to do it. So,” Jack was giving David that same overly excited, dopey grin as when they had first met. David’s heart seemed to flutter back up to his chest. “Are you in or out, huh?”

_Brown eyes. He has beautiful, brown eyes._

“I’m in.”

David’s answered surprised even himself. He was never impulsive and always thought things through, but armed with the knowledge that Jack was choosing  _him_  to sing with over some girl… He couldn’t pass up the chance.

And the look on Jack’s face made it all worth it.

“You’ll really do it!? Ha, Davey! You won’t regret it, it’ll be fun, I promise!” Jack’s smile was blinding.

David couldn’t help but laugh. “Y-Yeah. I’ll do it.”

The mood was dampened a bit when Jack suddenly put his hand to his mouth and spit in it before holding it out to David, seemingly for him to shake. David only stared at the hand.

“That’s disgusting,” David grimaced.

“That’s just business,” Jack replied, grin still plastered on his face.

David hesitated for a moment before copying Jack and spitting into his own hand. They shook and Jack pulled David into a hug.

“Thank you, Davey. You’re gonna be great. The song is perfect for you.”

David had barely put his hands on Jack’s back when Jack was pulling away and moving towards the window. “Rehearsal is at 7!” He called behind him, then disappeared back up the fire escape.

David stood dumbfounded. What had just happened? He looked down at the hand he had spit in and wiped it on his boxers, which were become a bit too restrictive. He gathered his clothing once more, and quickly headed to the bathroom to take a cold shower.


End file.
